Show I rr i 1 I Fireside Science 1 I II l I By Ransoms Sutton Button II I Copyright 1823 1523 N N. Y T I World Pre Pr Press 1 Co IIA II I IA A UP CLOSE-UP ON MEXICO I spent four years in Mexico work Mexico worked work worle- ed awhile for the tho national railroads sold sold church furniture to the bishops and school furniture to the governors owned a half ball Interest In a ranch wrote a historical novel about the tha brigands brig and I remember Mexico as asa asa asa a delightful land of Illusions Many Americans ha e made money In Int t Mexico but very fw w have ever brought much of a anything except 1 and romantic memories memori s. s out 1 of the country cO One hundred years before the PilgrIms Pilgrims Pil Pil- grims landed at Plymouth Mexico MexIco Mex Mex- ico leo City was a vice regal capital havIng having haying hav hay ing about 40 Aztecs and anti between OeO and Spanish inhabitants The Aztecs were the most cultured Indians this continent over ever produced they had risen out of ot savagery Into the upper realms of barbarism and I needed only one thing to raise them- them into civilization civilization-a a knowledge of how to smelt Iron weapons and tools They were living in th the bronze age They had llad domesticated animals and plants and could do everything cultured d barbarians elsewhere have done but th Spaniards had the advantage advantage ad ad- vantage because they were well advanced advanced advanced ad ad- in the Iron age Mexico s present troubles go back to the fact that the thousands of ot capable capable ca ca- pable pablo and courageous Spaniards who became Mexicans were nearly allmen all allmen allmen men few brought their wives and 1 daughters with them They Intermarried Inter Inter- married with the native women and what always happens when refined races have Intermingled with more primitives race rac resulted In Mexico The absorption of ot the blood of ot the original nal Spanish conquerors by the native Indian population has produced the tho racial mixture which wo we call cail Mexican rJ and which Is now engaged In Jn demonstrating its Incapacity for self self- gc government Madison Madison Grant The white race has been bred out literally swamp swamped d and the descendants descendants descend descend- ants of ot the conquerors are Indians Even Cortez Cortes had not been ashore twenty twenty four four hours before he made La Marina his mistress and his descendant descend- descend ant amit today are aro Indians through and through So In diagnosing Mexico's Mexico s disease we e should remember It is an Indian disease The disease has been aggravated b bj by tho the fact tact that the tha white conquerors all the tho land Those vast estates es estates es- es Cs- Cs tates have passed down the lines of ot tin descent and now belong to Indians Nine tenths Nine tenths of the land is owned by byal al t ranchers When buying iC a ranch I supposed I was buying only what the deeds called for several for several thousand acres at 2 75 an acre which included head of mong I I I laneous stock Th There Thure re were were two sixty peons on the place with work for less than halt half that number numbe- but I found H ii Impossible to get Kat rid of the peo peona ia because adjoining ranchers would woud not permit then them to Cf cross their lands The roads loads private were property j The rhe two sixty peons co coUld jid ld buy nothing e ea- ea at the ranch store and n nd prices were fixed arbitrarily by the rancher When working tha peons leons were supposed supposed sup sup- posed to receive c centavos 13 IS 2 3 23 3 cents a day but no o ono one ever paid pain them money simply gave them for their wages on en the tho ranch store books Although the Aztecs were vero in the bronze age ago culture the tha outlying tribes were then as now now flOW In III thi th age ago stage of human But nowhere nowhere nowhere no no- where can more moro willing and in some respects more capable working nci int be found provided they are shown how American engin- engin rs estimated it would cost t to t open an old Irrigating Irrigating Irrigating gating ditch to w wat it r 17 acres of ot valley alley land the peons did it with wooden plows VS IO and ind 20 Worth of ot tools I Can it be that these S nv n Seft eft I natives more n than naif th tho entire population should want walt an nil merest In the land that wish has never been satisfied Mexico has badan had bad hadan an average of or nearly one a year since attaining independence I livery Every vory successful has made promises land apportionment apportionment but ono seated in the executive chair He mie found d time tho landlords s more powerful than the president Not until the peons can he raised l out omit of I the stone age Into civilisation und and are permitted to share In the land landis is Mexico likely to nave a n stable p pUlar pU- pU lar government J 1 The other side of ot the presents pre pre- a n. beautiful picture the the jno nott t resourceful land on earth a n poetical musical self I r people wh who are exceedingly y chIldLike and likable a a stone atone age r modern modem things S |